How to… make a Lavender Wand

August 12, 2011

Welcome back to this week’s how to.. Today I bring you “How to make Lavender Wands” – or Lavendelstäbe – another little left over from my (Germanic) “teen-hood”. I think I like the “lavender wand” name more – makes it sound all fairy like. I made two today and immediately they were “claimed” by Red Ted and his playdate. A scented wand each. Perfect.

You can make these sitting in the garden or on a garden wall whilst chatting to your friends.. all you need is a piece of ribbon and some lavender… and I did just that when our playdate arrived!

Materials: an UNeven number of lavender (I used 17), piece of ribbon (I used one about 75cm long)

This craft also cost me “nothing” – the ribbons where salvaged from presents… and the lavender came from our garden!

1. Pick your lavender as long as possible. It should also be quite fresh, so that you can bend the stalks without breaking them. Make sure you have an uneven number – 11 – 21 are good. I used 17. As you can see my lavender is quite scraggly. If you have nice thick bush, with thick stems, you can make these with as little as 9 stems! Tidy up the stems of any leaves of lavender.

2. Tie your ribbon below the lavender. then start folding over stem by stem – folding it over and under the ribbon – i.e. weaving it. The first 2-3 rows are a little fiddly, but it is ok if you make a mistake, just fix it the next row round. It doesn’t matter too much and you will find the more you make of these, the more “perfect” they come out!

3. Keep going round and round until you get to the bottom.

4. When you get to the bottom, just wrap the ribbon round the stems and tie. Leave a length of ribbon for hanging in cupboards if desired. Done!

What do you think? Lovely, no?

The kids grabbed one each. Made me wrap the ribbon all the way round and went off to play!

They are of course also nice hung up in cupboards or in laundry drawers!

Comments

Hello Maggy! What a lovely blog you have done it so well….. I may just be inspired to make a wand and then get my own blog going. Hope that you were well received on your return and not thrust straight back into the housework etc!. Happy crafting, I shall be following. Rachel from Perth

Aaah thank you Rachel! Was so lovely to meet you in Perth! Had a fabulous time!!! If you do decide to start a blog, give me a shout if you have any questions 🙂 I can also put you in touch with a couple of the Australian book/ kids’ blogs!

I would say pretty sturdy! Especially if you make them whilst the stalks are still fresh – they will bend without cracking or breaking. They then dry in place. I am sure long long long term they may become brittle, but by then the lavender smell will have left anyway..?

Aw what a lovely idea, I remember when I was little and I used to sit and pick at the many lavender plants and bushes in my Nans garden – we used to put them into little square pockets and sew them up x Thank you for the reminder I am going to be making some with my own kiddies now x

I used to make these with my Nan but I’d forgotten how. Thank you for such great instructions. All I can remember is the lavender in a tray – I think she used to soak the stems in water, and I note you haven’t – wonder if it’s a false memory and I’m them muddling it with corn dollies.

Maybe she soaked them if they had already gone brittle? Mine were a little dry… but they say it is best to make these when the lavender is still fresh and am guessing that is to do with the stems not breaking!

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